From Caribbean360

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Thursday August 14, 2014, CMC – The St. Lucia parliament has given the government the green light in guaranteeing an EC$18.2 million (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents) loan from the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) for improving the facilities of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus here.

“The University of the West Indies is borrowing $18,200,000 from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to expand its facilities at Morne Fortune. It is a welcome expansion, as we are all aware that the existing facilities are limited,” Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony told legislators.

A government statement had noted that the CDB had “hesitated to make the loan available to the university under its own recognizance or on the basis of collateral offered by UWI, preferring instead a government guarantee”.

It said as a result, UWI Vice Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris, had written to the government requesting assistance.

Under theagreement, the St. Lucia government will not be responsible for meeting loan payments, and is acting in the capacity of guarantor.

“I know that members of this House are very sensitive to matters of education, so I trust, in that spirit, that we will endorse this request,” said Prime Minister, who is also Minister of Finance.

“I’m sure the university will be able to meet its commitments and I think we should support its efforts to modernize the facilities available to students,” Anthony said, noting that the university has completed drawings and is ready to commence construction.

Meanwhile, Parliament has also approved a three million EC dollar cruise sector training and employment initiative that will provide access to funding for nationals seeking non-utility job opportunities within the cruise sector.

A pilot version of the cruise sector employment programme was initially introduced under the National Initiative to Create Employment (NICE), and the new initiative will introduce stringent repayment conditions to ensure that the loans are repaid within a six-month period, to allow for the continuation of the programme.

Anthony said he was pleased that legislators had agreed to support the initiative, including former prime minister Stephenson King, whom he said had ‘approached me with suggestions on how the government could strengthen the programme’s weaknesses.

“We also learnt from other mistakes, which is why we ensured that when these loans are made available, we tie the loans to deposits in the banks so that we can maintain the loan as a revolving loan,” Anthony said.

Last year, 229 St. Lucians were offered jobs in the cruise ship sector.

IMAGE: uwi-st-lucia-opencampus

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